In which a group of graying eternal amateurs discuss their passions, interests and obsessions, among them: movies, art, politics, evolutionary biology, taxes, writing, computers, these kids these days, and lousy educations.

David Sucher (here) spotted a US News and World Report special package on building and architecture here. I found this piece by David Lagesse (here) especially interesting. It's about Frank Turner, the engineer who guided the construction of the US interstate system, which is coming to final completion next year. Hard to underestimate the impact of this project, set off in 1956 by Dwight Eisenhower.

Sample passage:

Safety and efficiency were the guiding principles, says Frank Griggs, a transportation engineer who also worked on the New York State Thruway. "The engineers were trained in getting people from point A to point B in the cheapest, fastest, and safest manner." Cheap often meant through wetlands, only later recognized as valuable, or through slums, bulldozed before residents could organize. "We didn't realize that poor people might not want to move--even if we thought it was for their own good," Griggs says.